Bill's Blog

My Portland Nephews

We spent a lovely five days in Portland. We even had good weather the first couple of days. We were here to visit with my nephews and their families. We stayed with Bjorn and his lovely daughter, Annika.

Our first full day there we went downtown. Betty had not seen it before and was very impressed by its look and feel. There was an event in the town's main downtown plaza, called Oregon Bounty. They were encouraging folks to visit and experience the bountiful harvest of food, beer and wine. They had some great samples and a cook-off with some well-known local chefs. We did a bit of shopping. One shop that we happened into was really fabulous. It was called The Real Mother Goose. It specialized in expensive handicrafts, many of which showed the hand of brilliant artists and craftsmen.

Betty kicked into cooking mode that first day. She made a great beef roast. Friday, the second day, she stuffed a chicken and made great gravy for the mashed potatoes and tasty yams. My nephew, Shelby, and his wife, Kate, dropped by to enjoy the feast. We had a wonderful evening chatting and imbibing some great Portland ales. All is going well with them. Kate still has a year left in her midwife training program. Shelby is thinking hard about switching to a health profession too. He is pretty unhappy working as a retail store manager. Such a switch makes sense; he has always loved the biological and zoological sciences.

Saturday was our last full day in Portland. It started with a kid's soccer game. They do not keep score nor have full teams, but the little ones seem to have a ball. Annika and her fellow six-year old girls ran back and forth for nearly 45 minutes.

In the evening we visited Lenin and Kelly. They just had their first child, Sofia, who is just five weeks old. Kelly is still taking time off from her nursing duties. Lenin has become a well-known face in the Portland area community, because of television. No, he did not become an actor. He owns the first Hispanic insurance agency in the Portland area and he is backed by Allstate. The baby is real cute and she looks a lot like Lenin. It was great to see them and catch up on all the changes in their lives.

Sunday, we headed south. We got a late start. The weather was not good for flying. With a big headwind to start, it was more than seven hours of flying. We took one stop for a quick rest and some more gas and we arrived in Santa Monica at about 8:30 at night.

Posted by bill at October 1, 2007 03:56 PM